Repeated treatment with antidepressant drugs prevents salbutamol-induced hypoactivity in rats.

We have found earlier that a number of antidepressant drugs, administered repeatedly, prevent the salbutamol-induced hypoactivity in rats. Our further experiments show that a similar effect is produced by repeated, but not acute, treatment with other antidepressants: clomipramine, mianserin and nialamide. Two non-antidepressant psychotropic drugs, haloperidol and diazepam, were inactive after repeated administration. These results seem to support our earlier hypothesis that prevention of the salbutamol-induced hypoactivity may be regarded as functional evidence at the behavioral level for the subsitivity of beta-adrenoceptors.